Road Rage

Gee-whiz I didn’t see the damn kombi. I was at a quirky roundabout (more like a T-junction with a roundabout) where you either take a slight bend and go straight ahead or turn left. Or if you feel like a swim, you could turn right and go over the guardrails and take a plunge to the river below.

It was between 4.30 -5pm and the sun was glaring right in my eyes. I stopped at the roundabout, squinted, stretched my neck up to avoid the glare and checked if it was safe to proceed. I thought the oncoming VW kombi was going straight ahead. I swear I did not see the indicator.

I started to proceed but screeched to a halt as the kombi, with a man (driver) and a woman (passenger) was manoeuvring the roundabout to turn to their right. When I haltedthey tooted the horn, gave me the middle finger while mouthing the F word (I am sure they didn’t just mouth, they must have screamed their lungs with that favourite word of the deranged). Thankfully with my windows up I only saw the mouthing of it and irate faces glaring at me.

So much anger and hatred for such a simple mistake!

It may be illegal to swear in public, at work, yep even by the boss and police can arrest if you use the F word on them, yet the word just fall off the mouth of drivers as if the tongue is a slippery slope.

At that moment, my thought was “what is the big deal?” “I stopped, didn’t I?” I could have understood (sort of) if it was at least a near collision, or at least my oversight made them veer. It was neither.

I have no explanation for my reaction next, except to say something about their incensed faces screaming blue murder, tickled my funny bone and I burst out laughing with my arm outstretched in a gesture that says ‘look at those faces’.

With my (strange) reaction, the irate looks vanished in a flash, replaced by surprised, quizzical looks while slowly moving out of my sight.

It was a film worthy moment within many moments. It truly was.

I kept looking at the back of the moving van while still laughing and saw the woman passenger peering from the side mirror with the bewildered look still about her.

Perhaps they thought I escaped from the loony house, I don’t know and don’t care.

You know what I did once? I just made my eyes go as big as saucers, put on this grin that would put Cheshire cat to shame, and put my hands together and made like I was saying Ayubowan. Then I took the notepad I had handy and proceeded to look like I was jotting down everything the guy was saying as if it was the secrets of life itself. 😛

The poor sod must’ve thought I was a deranged maniac or summat cos he disappeared in a cloud of dust. He must’ve gotten some choice words from someone at the speed he drove off!

Most of the time I’m slow to react in the face of such unprovoked anger and hatred because it always catches me off guard. More often than not I just end up staring back/ignoring it. Afterwards though, I can think of a million witty comebacks that would have them speechless. You ‘laugh’ approach might work better than my stare I think!

I too suffer from Darwin’s affliction. Think it’s called lackofinstantwititis. Usually i just walk off quietly. 🙂 I’ll try smiling next time, but i’m not expecting any miracles. Maybe if I can get a whole group of people to do it…

LD,
The best thing is not to give in to anger. It is very easy to lash back.

Darwin,
Sometimes laughter is a bitter pill to swallow for angry people because the reaction they are looking from you is the opposite of that.

Jester my son, I would have never thought of you as walking away silently type. I thought of you as quick witted. If you plan to laugh at an irate person, make sure you are at a safe distance. Because laughter is an antipathy for an angry person and they could strike you. And I mean it.